Labour might have brought themselves a bigger problem firing Rob Campbell than not, because he is clearly not going to go quietly.

He's spoken to most media major outlets, sometimes more than once in the last 24 hours. He's considering releasing the legal letter he sent the Health Minister before she sacked him. 

And probably more worrying to Labour long term, he’s made it clear he’s going to keep on agitating on co-governance. 

He's said this is a kaupapa he’s very dedicated to; in the job he put activism behind these issues. And now, he’s “energised” and he will keep “espousing” these issues as long as people keep listening to him.

Now the reason that will likely worry Labour is because they clearly want co-governance to go away as a political debate. We already know they’re apparently planning to water it down before the election.

And Campbell reckons they fired him and told him off once before because he’s too outspoken on co-governance when they want the issue to go quiet.

Labour knows they’re vulnerable on co-governance, and they’ll know Campbell has the potential to hurt them on this.

Because it’s one thing having a political opponent attack you on your weak spot, your core voters won’t listen to the opposition.

It's much worse having a former friend attack you, because there’s a good chance your voters are going to listen to your former friend.

And if there’s one thing we know about Rob Campbell, when he attacks, he doesn’t mince his words. 

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But on that subject, it is disappointing that co-governance is the kaupapa Campbell has spent all these interviews passionately defending.

Wouldn’t it have been good if the former chair of Health NZ had as passionately defended his efforts to get more nurses, more doctors, more hospital wards, and more money for nurses, better equipment, shorter waitlists? 

Nope. It’s co-governance. 

Disappointing to users of the health system to hear that, but probably more worrying for a Government wanting to stop talking about it. 

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